Author
Topic: Microsoft thread (Read 20822 times)

People exaggerate about how "bad" 8 is almost as badly as PC exaggerates how amazing everything is. I don't care for the removal of Aero Glass and I don't find the start screen particularly useful, but I barely use the start menu either so it's not exactly an enormous change. 8 has solid under-the-hood improvements.

That said, I still maintain that they should have made metro an "uninstallable" feature ala Media Center and kept the code for the regular start menu. There are some fantastic 3rd party Start Menu options out there but unfortunately they're all payware.

From a PR perspective, 8 is Vista all over again. People have made up their minds about 8 based on very limited usage and hearsay, and nothing is going to change their minds.

Upgraded my Samsung Slate to Windows 8 and so far, I'm not impressed. I'm somewhat used to it already due to having a Windows Phone, but geesh... It's a bit of a pain in the ass so far. Mostly though due to being so much different than what I'm used to, that and the fact that it took about a day and a half to figure out how to pair up my Bluetooth keyboard to the tablet. Had to resync it.

Not sure. She had her agency's PC specialist in and fix it. Had to install a ton of updates. She's not a fan at all so far. It is very confusing but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Great on our tablet though.

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses in the six months since launch, roughly in line with the previous version, but wants to combat sputtering interest in its flagship software with a substantial update to make it easier to use, and compatible with smaller tablets.

Windows 8 is the first Microsoft operating system primarily designed for touch commands, but it has failed to capture consumers' imaginations or make a dent in a tablet market dominated by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

"Is it perfect? No. Are there things we need to change? Absolutely. We are being very real about what needs to change and changing it as thoughtfully and quickly as we can", said Tami Reller, co-head of Microsoft's Windows unit at the company's Redmond, Washington headquarters last week, where she announced the latest Windows sales figure, a number made public on Monday.

Microsoft will be rolling out an update to Windows 8, provisionally code-named 'Windows Blue', by the end of this year, Reller said. Details of the update will be released in the next few weeks.

Although Microsoft has sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses since launch on October 26, matching Windows 7 sales three years previously, it looks unlikely that the new system will see progressively rising demand, as Windows 7 did, hitting 240 million sales in its first year.

Microsoft's last Windows 8 sales update was in early January, when it broke 60 million, suggesting only around 40 million license sales in the last four months, well below Windows 7's average sales rate.

Windows 7 was helped by the fact that it replaced the generally unpopular Windows Vista, whereas Windows 8 has confused many potential customers with its new-look 'tile'-based start screen and the omission of the traditional 'start' button.

"The learning curve is real, and we need to address it," said Reller. "We're not sitting back and saying, they will get used to it."

Reller did not say whether the 'Blue' update would restore the start button, but she said Microsoft would pay more attention to helping customers adapt.

"We've considered a lot of different scenarios to help traditional PC users move forward as well as making usability that much better on all devices," she said.

TOUCH LAPTOPS

Consumer alienation, and the lack of affordable touch-laptops that can make full use of Windows 8, has held back computer sales, according to industry tracker IDC. PC sales had their sharpest drop on record in the first three months of this year, plummeting 14 percent.

Reller hopes that new machines from firms including Lenovo, ASUS and Hewlett-Packard will change that this year.

"We know customers like touch laptops, but they are also price sensitive," she said. "Our partners (hardware makers) have to bet on volume, so that they get price breaks, and get that moving into the (retail) channel."

Microsoft is also tweaking Windows 8 to make it compatible with smaller seven and eight inch tablets, which would allow hardware makers to compete in the fastest-growing segment of the tablet market against Apple's iPad mini, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, Google Inc's Nexus 7 and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire.

Reller declined to comment on whether Microsoft would make a smaller version of its own Surface tablet.

Microsoft has not made much of an impression in the tablet market so far, notching only 900,000 Surface sales in the first quarter, according to IDC, compared with 19.5 million iPad sales and 8.8 million Samsung tablet sales.

Overall, Reller hopes the 'Blue' update and a slew of attractive touch-laptops will fire up interest in Windows machines in all forms.

"I believe that touch will be mainstream in consumer laptops," said Reller. "I think we'll be pleased with the progress we've made by 'back to school' and by holiday (year end), we'll be at this tipping point where we will say, 'Now I see it'."

Microsoft shares closed at $33.75 on the Nasdaq, after hitting their highest level since January 2008 earlier in the session, as the S&P 500 reached an all-time high.

Alright, don't know where to put this, but here we go. I'm trying to burn an audio disc via iTunes on my tablet with a external DVD burner. The model is a sony drx-s7ou-r which has been discontinued. My issue is that the "include CD text" option is now greyed out. Any idea what the problem is? I'm using Windows 8 and have the current version of iTunes.

I actually don't mind Windows 8... there is enough under-hood improvement that I can overlook the quirks, which will hopefully be ironed out anyway. Even some of the metro stuff is starting to grow on me.